By Aimee Lee | Posted April 13, 2023
Having crossed the finish line at the close of the winter season, Montgomery High School Track and Field begins a new, more challenging and exciting race: the 2023 spring season.
Montgomery High School senior sprinter Jon Orlando off the starting block. He tied the school record in the 400-meter distance.
“We had a really successful winter season,” said Girls Head Coach Timothy Bartholemew, and his words just might be an understatement. Just to name a few, junior Julia Scrudato consistently broke school records for the 800, 1000, 1600, and 3200-meter races. Senior Aryan Guruasmy shattered the 600-meter school record, and senior Jon Orlando tied the 400-meter school record to become a Skyland Conference champion. Junior Adanna Obuba also had an outstanding season full of high jump personal records, and currently holds the third best high jump in school history.
In the NJSIAA Sectional Championship, five Montgomery athletes met the MileSplit US Second Team standard, a distinction honoring national-level high school performances. Scrudato and Obuba even qualified for the Nike Indoor Nationals race, managing to achieve personal bests in their respective events.
But the track to success was never easy. From November to March, at the sound of the dismissal bell, the student-athletes shifted their academic focus onto their sport, training more than two hours every weekday. “We have to stay on top of our work [and] listen to our coaches,” said Jon Orlando, “you have to be in tune, you have to know your steps.”
To prevent injuries, the athletes lifted in the weight room, supervised by Strength and Conditioning Coach Jim Griff. Boys Head Coach Sean Carty emphasized the importance of good nutrition and hydration to the team. “Being able to survive until [the end of the winter season] is tough,” said pole vault and hurdle coach Daniel Lee, “it’s a lot of racing and it’s a lot of putting in that time.”
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Despite the great successes accomplished this winter, there is still much to do in order to carry the momentum into the spring. The challenge is to seamlessly transition into the spring. Factors such as the warming weather, harder competition, and track conditions can make the change difficult. In addition, runners must adjust if they are assigned different events than the ones they ran in the winter. Additionally, a great program requires hard work from all athletes.
Though track may seem like an individual sport, “Everyone contributes to the team. If one person isn’t contributing or missing practice, they can really impact the team,” Coach Bartholemew stated. Nevertheless, when the team laces up its spikes and positions itself on the starting line, the adrenaline pumps through the coaches and all the athletes. “We are really excited for it,” said Coach Carty. “We feel like we are competitive in our conference, in our section, and hopefully we continue to [win] in the spring.” “Wherever we are right now, we want to be a little better than we are tomorrow. The expectation is that. The kids see that and push for it too.”
